


Eye for an Eye

by pekorosu



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Another peek into their daily life, Canon - Manga, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25840444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pekorosu/pseuds/pekorosu
Summary: Revenge is sweeter than expected.English translation of報復。by 小葉.
Relationships: Ash Lynx & Okumura Eiji
Kudos: 14





	Eye for an Eye

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [報復。](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/665578) by 小葉. 



> Permission received from the author to translate and post on AO3. Please do not repost or redistribute elsewhere without permission. 
> 
> The original story was posted on May 19, 2013.

“Eiji?”

Ash sits up on the bed, apparently having gotten up on his own. This is unusual, he thinks, completely oblivious to the fact that just an hour ago, he had slept through Eiji’s fierce wake-up call like a log. 

He walks out of the bedroom and into the living room, yawning all the way, but he doesn’t find Eiji at the sofa where he usually would be. Unfazed, Ash makes his way into the next room: Eiji’s workspace. 

“Eiji?” he calls out again. His distinctive platinum blonde hair is sticking up all over in a serious case of bedhead, but he paid it no mind. 

A quick glance around the room shows that it’s vacant, but that illusion is broken by the cheerful humming that drifts over from the closet in the back that doubles as a darkroom. 

Sounds like someone’s in a good mood. 

Ash furrows his brows at the unfamiliar Japanese pop tune. Come to think of it, the only time when Eiji hums in there is when the photos are coming along well. And also—

Just then, the closet door creaks open.

“Hm? Ash. You are up,” Eiji says, stepping out with a couple of finished prints in hand. Ash shrugs.

“Yeah, well, my alarm clock started singing this god-awful tune and there’s no way I could’ve slept through that. Anyway.” He motions at Eiji. “Show me those pictures.”

Eiji starts and shrinks back, sliding the prints behind him. 

“They’re not ready...”

Ash narrows his eyes dangerously. “Hand them over.”

Eiji takes a step back as though preparing to bolt when Ash yanks his arm without warning and snatches the photos out of his grasp. It’s just as he suspected.

“You sneaky little—I told you not to take pictures of me secretly!”

“But the other day you said is okay to take.”

“Not when I’m asleep!”

“I did not take _secretly..._ ”

“Talking to me while I’m asleep doesn’t count, ‘cause it’s not like I can hear you! Sheesh!”

“So you do know... Then you should just wake up! Besides, picture is already done, I cannot do anything now. Anyway, Ash?” As though he’s done entertaining Ash’s usual surliness, Eiji flashes him a sweet smile. “How about some breakfast?”

Damn it.

It looks like Eiji has gotten used to Ash’s quick temper, as he has figured out how to casually deflect it. No, maybe straight-up ignoring it is more accurate.

Ash stabs his fork into the salad in front of him and stuffs a piece of avocado into his mouth.

When they’d first met, Eiji hadn’t been very good at English—or rather, he was downright awful at it. He could barely speak it, much less understand what others were saying. As though painfully aware of this shortcoming, his go-to phrase was “pardon,” followed by “sorry.” But lately, he’s been getting the hang of it and he’s starting to be able to hold his own against Ash’s quips. 

What a bummer. It’s not cute at all. 

...Not that there’d be anything cute about a grown man two years his senior. He viciously stabs through some lettuce and shrimp, fork hitting the glass bowl with a loud clink. 

“It’s not like you to be so noisy,” Eiji chides.

It’s almost unbelievable that this guy is older than him. Asians generally tend to look younger than they really are, but Eiji is an anomaly even among Asians. According to Ibe, he looks baby-faced even to the Japanese and to make matters worse, those cherubic features just get more pronounced when he’s asleep. 

Speaking of which, that has become something of a routine occurrence—him coming home late at night utterly drained from sorting out gang matters, to Eiji already fast asleep, face as serene as a baby. Just one look would remind him of Eiji’s frequent assertions of being older and wiser, and he would find himself even more convinced that Eiji looks so far from his age he might as well be on the moon. He’d get so mad if I said that out loud though, Ash would then think, laughing softly to himself. 

For some reason, looking at Eiji’s sleeping face just fills him with a sense of respite.

Wait a sec. Sleeping face?

As if a light bulb just went off in his head, Ash holds a bagel up and peeks through the hole at Eiji, before breaking into a mischievous grin.

***

A few days later.

The door flies open and hits the wall with a loud _BAM_ as Eiji bursts out of his work room.

Ash lifts his gaze from the newspaper. “What’s up?”

“... _You_ ,” Eiji says pointedly, face flushed.

“Me?”

Eiji’s mouth flaps open and shut like a fish out of water, but all that comes out is air. Finally, he mutters, “No... Never mind.”

“Right. So, how are the prints going?”

Eiji glares daggers at him. “They are all fail!” he yells, making a whole show of stomping off and slamming the door as he retreats into the closet once again.

“Oooh, scary,” Ash chuckles to himself.

Judging by that reaction, the prints should be coming along swimmingly. Eiji must have been shocked to see himself when examining the negatives in the dim light of the darkroom. Or maybe he caught on as he was printing the photos one-by-one, only to arrive at his own face unexpectedly.

A few days ago, Ash had snapped some photos of Eiji while he was fast asleep. Well, more like a whole lot of them. The first half of the film were photos of people going in and out of the mafia’s office across the street, so Eiji would have wanted to print those. The latter half though?

Eiji sure has some weird sleeping positions.

Ash cackles behind the newspaper in his hands. That said, there’s no way that Eiji would want to continue printing the rest of the photos now, but also, Ash doesn’t have the resources to print them on his own. So.

He sets the newspaper down on the sofa and reaches into his back pocket to pull something out. Just then, Eiji walks out of the room again with a perfectly crafted poker face. 

“Hey, Ash? The first part of film is... done...”

He stutters to a halt at the sight of the coffee table. Lined up across the surface are the rest of the photos that Ash had sent to print at the store. It’s a whole sea of Eiji, Eiji, Eiji and _more_ Eiji.

The actual Eiji yelps, startled. “When did you—?!”

“Man, has anyone ever told you that you sleep like a restless toddler? Oh, oh, check this out!” Ash points at a photo, grinning from ear to ear. “Now _this_ takes the cake. We should totally frame this up, dont’cha think?”

“Ash!!!!!!!!!!”

Flustered, Eiji lunges forward and sweeps up all the photos into his arms. Without missing a single beat, Ash snatches up the one that appears to be the most humiliating.

“Give it back!” Eiji yells, jumping over and over in increasingly frantic attempts to snatch the photo that Ash is holding high above his head, but Ash simply dodges him without breaking a sweat.

“Ash!”

“Swear on it.”

Eiji scowls.

“No more taking pictures of me while I’m asleep.”

“...Fine.”

“No more smacking me awake in the morning.”

“.........Fine.”

“No more natto in this house.”

Eiji pauses. “I don’t know.”

“Why.”

“Because _I_ want to eat it.”

“Then you can eat it yourself.”

Eiji huffs. “It’s weird to eat different food when we are having meal together at the same table, don’t you think?”

That so? Ash wonders, feeling the words stick in his throat somehow. It’s not like he’s had much experience with family meals after all. Finally he sighs, dropping his arm and handing the photo to Eiji. “Knock yourself out.” 

Eiji grabs it eagerly, before abruptly whipping his palm out again. 

“Film too.”

Jeez. 

Ash digs into his back pocket for the roll, passing it over just as he’s told. At the very same moment, something slips out of his pocket and flutters slowly to the ground.

It’s a photo.

They both inhale sharply.

Ash snatches up the photo—which had landed face-down, thankfully—and quickly stuffs it back into his pocket.

“Ash.” Eiji eyes him suspiciously. “What is that? Let me see.”

“Nothing. Just the scenery.”

“Then what’s the problem? Let me see.”

“...I’m heading out for a bit.” Ash sidesteps Eiji’s outstretched hand, muttering something about having an urgent matter to attend to as he makes a beeline for the front door.

“Don’t forget to lock up,” he says curtly to Eiji who’s following closely behind. He grabs his jacket off the coat rack and darts out the door, shutting it behind him. He can hear Eiji yelling out his name from the other side, muffled but clearly exasperated.

Without a moment’s delay, Ash makes his way out of the apartment and onto the streets. After walking around for some time with no real destination in mind, he stops, looking over his shoulder to confirm that he’s not being followed. Satisfied, he breathes out a sigh of relief.

He reaches into his back pocket and takes out the photo once again. He studies it for a while, expression mellowing out with each passing second.

Guess I’ll go grab a drink with Alex and the boys, he finally decides. It’s been a while.

Ash slips the photo into his breast pocket this time, and walks off in the direction of downtown.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Any errors, typos or inaccuracies are my own.


End file.
